When you could get a Sterling by Music Man new for $400, used for just over $200, why take a chance on an unknown, too-good-to-be-true, coming from the other side of the world bass? Plenty of used basses by Ibanez, Yamaha, Squier, and other proven commodity companies out there for that price. Just my $0.02
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Ali Express Bass Wow!
- Thread starter Greg Pruitt
- Start date
Don’t waste your time.
Harley Benton, Rondo Music and Artist Guitars are all much better options for cheap instruments.
Harley Benton, Rondo Music and Artist Guitars are all much better options for cheap instruments.
I ordered a royal blue metallic P bass a couple of weeks ago from Aliexpress with the intention of putting together a version 2 Steve Harris signature Bass.
I don't care about the hardware or electronics cause that is all going to be replaced.
I'm holding of buying a neck with a slight bit of hope that the neck that comes with the bass will be good.
All that said, if I get a decent looking royal blue metallic body for $300 I will be happy.
i got a chibson as a gag gift for my brother, it wasnt expensive at all, less than 200 dollars, the thing plays as good as any other overseas built guitar, which is to say fairly decent. theres a lot of funny inconsistencies on it, the top nut appears to have been carved with a boxcutter, the neck binding stripe is painted on at the nut, some frets are sharper than they should be, but arent cutting strings in half. the thing about it is though is those chinese humbuckers sound wrong in all the right ways, like it has killer tone, like something about how tinny and hallow those humbuckers sound in comparison to the real deal gibson humbuckers that sort of resonate with the tone wood and sound woofy. the pickups themselves are microphonic but dont feedback from what i can tell. that is if you tape them with a pencil you can hear it, i think if you holler loud enough into them basically you can get it on the amp. it sorta sounds like a gibson crossed with a jazzmaster guitar, the tone has beefy highs and mids due to how solid and heavy the body is, but a distinct lack of the low end woof on a gibson. it sounds really neat and i sorta regret not keeping it for myself and learning guitar actually!
this is 100% true, but also true is it is very very funny to have something that is the fake bootleg version of something else. and as ive said earler it is absolutely evil to pass one of these off as real. I dont even think the makers intend for that to happen. i think a lot of these are purely out of demand for them, and honestly sometimes a little pride in making a fake. Like if you're working at a guitar factory and you're not really trained at it necessarily, theres a sort of pride or fun in making a copy of a high end instrument.
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It is better to spend a thousand dollars than flush 400 dollars.
Can you get out and play some basses you like the string spacing? Will be easy then to find someone who can mesure accurately. I don't think this Aliexpress bass is the only one in the world with this string spacing (assuming that is also exactly same the string spacing you had on the bass you sold).
I bought three things from Aliexpress. A 4003 copy, a 4005 copy, and a Rick 12 copy. Awful stuff, all now gone. The 4003 was NOT what was in the pic. I complained to Aliexpress themselves, and they got me a partial refund. I then sold it super cheap on CL. The 4005 was NOT hollow, and weight nearly 11 pounds. The 12-string wasn't horrible, but was close to horrible. All of them had super-weak pickups, all were terribly microphonic. All had major fret issues. Forget what you have heard about Chinese instruments being sometimes "good deals for the money". While this is true, it is not the case with Aliexpress stuff. These instruments, at least the ones I received, were a major step down from anything I would expect to see at a US music store, even in the beginner section. My experience was that I received substandard stuff that would not be put out for sale at any reputable music store. If you are good with tinkering, and are prepared to swap out any and all parts, then maybe take a chance. But they are not Squier-level instruments, not even close. Squier-level is gig-able, nothing I received was or likely could be made to be. Buyer beware.
- Dec 21, 2007
- 15,222
- 45,016
- Disclosures
- Lark in the Morning Instructional Videos; Audix Microphones
Seriously, if you can get out to a brick and mortar store and play a few basses to see if any have the string spacing you like, it would help. Report on the model and someone will know what it is.
"Wide-normal" for a 5 is 19 mm, and there are a LOT of basses now that meet that criteria. If that's too narrow for you then you'll need to look harder. A few years back 17 mm was pretty standard for 5's so that may be what you're thinking of as "too narrow".
Maybe someone here can chime in on some production basses with 19 mm spacing that you can try.
That reminded me of a Guitar Player magazine interview with Beck (the other one) and the guys who played on his albums, including Odelay, etc., back around 2000 or so. The interviewer expressed surprise that he didn't see any Strats or Les Pauls sitting around, and one of the guitarists said, "We play copies of copies!" (I wondered what could those be. Maybe off-brand copies of the Univox Mosrite copies with the slanted tan humbuckers.)
Looking through this thread there does not appear to be a response of the type the OP is looking for, that is, someone who bought a similar product from AliExpress and can relate his/her personal experience. This is a super active website used by people with tastes from Alembic to GLarry. If somebody here can't respond with the information you want, the input you want doesn't exist. So you are back to what everyone is saying - it's a crapshoot. Which isn't necessarily a reason not to buy it, of course.
Edit: Except mark107, who bought three ric copies from AliExpress, and they were garbage.
Edit: Except mark107, who bought three ric copies from AliExpress, and they were garbage.
Hovered over the picture the op posted and did a Google Lens search and came up with a few sites with similar bass including a few aliexpress sellers , etc and I found a 2018 FB that "appears" to be the original manufacturer ? who posted this 2018 NAMM bass - Looks like it was a 2018 NAMM release ? , Anyway for what it's worth here's the link: Still I have no clue as to hoow valid any of this info is ??? Also clicked link to Big Guy music and it appears these basses are made in China -- just some info to run with
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I will need to check one out for it's tone. I have a specific tone I like in a bass. My passive/active Sire V7 4 string J-bass has this tone.
I know that IF I buy one of these, I know it will be a some what of project. I am repaired for that if need be. I did not expect a project bass (that is what this thing would be if purchased) to be ready to take to a gig, not ay any means.
When your bass arrives and you have had a chance to look it over for all the check points, please report your experience. But, I would love to hear what you have to say about the bass... How it feels, fit-n-finish, electronics, tone, etc. out of the box
It's not due to arrive until May 2nd (fingers crossed) but I'm super curious how it'll be out of the box as well. I'll let know after it get here.
Looks like the real bass company that made the style you posted "I think" here's link to their site Deluxe BN Series – FBASS click through there other models too ....
I believe there are some good responses from folks with first hand experience. Just took a couple for them to filter in. Thanks for your comments.
